Wednesday, June 03, 2009

When Employees Are Forbidden to Sit Down, Walk at Normal Pace

While driving smoothly (Dubai is already less congested...downturn...) to work this morning, I tuned to Radio 2 and heard the DJ saying something about Canon office has no chairs as part of productivity drive and improving staff relationship!

By January 2010, we have to move again to a brand new office, hopefully, we may not be in this kind of office environment!

You might think your job sucks, but at least your boss wasn't insane enough to remove all the chairs and install security so an alarm goes off if you don't walk fast enough.

The president of Canon Electronics, Hisashi Sakamaki, is also the author of a book proposing some of the same measures he takes with his own company. His theory is that forcing employees to stand not only saves money but increases productivity and enhances employee relationships.

In the hallway, if an employee walks slower than 5 meters every 3.6 seconds, an alarm and flashing lights are set off, reminding the poor startled worker that he's an inefficient waste of air. Even better (or worse), there's a sign on the floor in said hallways that reads, "Let's rush: If we don't, the company and world will perish." The big boss, as a reward for thinking up all this stuff, gets to lounge in a nice, relaxing chair

i think i can agree with you to a certain extent with that "ethnocentric" statement. tp saya xpastila samada komen tu within context of the article.

the article, i think, nak illustrate the japanese point of view on working ethics, nothing to do with their so-called ethnocentricism.

no, im not defending the japnaese per se. but different people see the world differently. i don't see any problem with any company allowing its staff to reproduce more :) if i'm married, i don't mind. furthermore, is the company going to monitor? or will anybody be fired if they fail to have more children? :)